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Published: July 27th 2008
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10/7/08
came to Luoping(@1500m) yesterday. Luoping got a lively street scene in every corner, shoe shinner, street singer, begger, mobile-vender with basket on stilt, food stands, fortune teller, mule-carts... Everything in action, inside the market square you could hear loud speaker blasting, you would walked into the surround sound of price! Accommodation got more choice here, Luoping is another once a year business town, only the 2 months around Chinese new year you will find tourist. And all the rest of the year, you could really find good bargain for room. Anyways...once outside the bus station, a woman came and asked me if I need a room, why not, so I followed her and it turned out a rather ok place and...cheap! The main reason I choose to stay mostly because she said most of the people stay in her house were market goer, and I could enquired many information. At night when all the inhouse guest settled, they all shaked their heads, "no, not much hill tribe still dress in costume" they said. Still people suggested Ahgeng,"old women had small feet there" some said, but I told them they should be Han. "Wulong!" another man speak up, yes I
agree with him because I'd
already been there, and this time I want only Luoping region. And finally we narrowed down the market for me to go today was Douyi. An hour trip easy accessed by minibus on good paved road. Small market dominated by Buyi people, long sleeve light blue plain shirt opened from the right side, older women wear one more darker shirt in the same style on top, only elbow length sleeve and with embroider pattern. they wear headband, some laced with silver plaques, but most women just wrapped their head with a towel, typical style nowaday everywhere in minority area. They wear long trousers nd some still put on cotton shoes. Beside the Buyi, there was some Miao, most of them only could identified by the front and back apron around their waist, hair knotted on top of their head, and with a sausage like headband. Nearby the market was one of the tourist site in Luoping, the Douyi river scenic park, for 40 yuans you could go inside for a walk, and further on the highway you could reach the dam and another sight call mini 3-gorges. Not my cup of tea, beside, today the
weather look sour and everything look colourless. Huge thunder and lightening hit town in the afternoon, rain began and I sleep in!
Note
Bus Luxi to Sizhong 10 yuans
Bus Sizhong to Luoping 12 yuans
Bus Luoping to Douyi 10 yuans
11/7/08
Pick up Wim and his group, we then made our way down to Qiubei. With Wim...the travel will be more easier, as he always came with a car. Weather was shitty and rain all day, we first passed Qiaotou market by the Nanpanjiang river, you could see the Buyi like in Luoping area, and here they got the Zhuang, same with the silver plaques headband and covered with dark turban, tight long sleeve shirt in light colour open from the right, wear long trousers and their unique shoulder bag, they are very easy going people and welcoming. You could see the same kind of Miao like in Douyi that wear very simple costume. After we drove on through greenery hill area with rain pouring crazy, then after descent through the dense cloud we hit another market unexpectedly in Pinglong in the middle of the road, huge traffic jam, although rain pouring we wouldn't mind to
tour in the market, row of cars sandwiched by the vendor made-shift store, together with human traffic...chaostic! We saw the same tribe like in Qiaotuo but in more number, and much more Miao in full dress, here they wear an embroidered headband with sash hanging down behind their ear from both sides, most of them also carried their new style shoulder bag in briefcase shape. after 4 hours the cars began to move, slowly we drifted forward with the flow as the sky began clear up.
"full"..."full"..."full" most of the gueshouse gave the same replied when we arrived Quibei, even with Wim, we could choose hotel with star rated, still choice are limited, and not worth the price. But why short of room? Then I heard they said it was the Lotus festival, as the lotus is blooming during this 2 months, together with the coming torch festival, they made a lot of thing out of it. You could imagined the dining scene in town during rush hour with so many Chinese tourist.
12/7/08
With our own car, greedily I aimed for 2 market on a same day. First we visited Shupi said to be 46km away, but
it turn out a fast trip on a well paved road, won't took us half an hour. They even got public city bus run this route, we were early but it gave us chance to see people arrived. Here ox-cart are the main transportation for the local, a great sight to watch them approaching town in a row. Main merchandise here is chilli, one of the main product in Quibei, sack after sack shipped in the market from the villages around, and seem changing hand was quick too as truck load off to different direction at the same time. Sichuan pepper also in season, and its fresh strong fragrant caught more attention . Shupi is a big market, section for vegetable and meat, a huge area for clothing, and the street was full of different kind of business, fortune teller, handmade childern hat and shoes, grape was the seasonal fruit at the moment in this part of Yunnan, and it taste just like wine! There was a corner full of gambling game, but all the same, a printed mat with 6 figures on the ground, and someone with a dices shaker making noise attracted costomer, 2 or 3 people already
playing the game, but it was so easy to spotted that they all are partner, a scam, they all betting robotly. No wonder no one got in their hook. Here mostly are Miao, the same we saw so far in Quibei, and the Yi and Zhuang like those in Wenshan Matong market.
We move on to looking for the market in Shede before noon. Seem rather straight forward according to the map, we drove on but couldn't located the road junction, almost 2 hours wasted from up an down the road, we finally got to the road which would lead us to Shede, a new road, I mean...nothing in my map, and it was stil under construction, "come next year and you can drive on a concrete road", the local said. Finally we got to Shede(@2300m) by 4pm. Still caught the last action of the market. Same... Mostly dominated by Miao, same style in costume. And we saw one girl in Bai costume, almost similar to those in Dali. Here they had one tribe of Yi which was actually coming from the ancient Bo
people from the north, said they still kept most of their traditional custom like cave burial
and costume. But there was none of those dressed Yi in sight, "no, we only wear when in festival" one girl told us. And she went into her shop and bring back a photo album, "that's the dress we wear in Beijing last time when we went for performance." look fancy to me, like those dancer in culture village show was my first impression. Anyways...it was not fair to them for me to said that. But for me, dress that not for daily life are not real, I am not interest in that kind of costume.
13/7/08
Lijiao is another huge market, not only buffalo-carts, together with many horse and donkey carts, which enriched the approaching troop scene. Here you seen mostly are Maio, and the most outstanding sight are their apron, not only cross-stitched but also with embroidery finishing, and the pattern were mixed with Han style which was seldom seen in Miao costume in Yunnan. Other than Miao, there should be Yi, but not many were in costume. And then there are Zhuang as well.
Suddenly Wim said he got a message from Holland, bad news that he need to get home as soon as possible.
So we end our trip in KM in 5 hrs. Settle his ticket home and I will need to rearrange my unexpected early trip tomorrow.
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